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stardust21

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Just did some aimless scrolling during I’m a Celeb to make this post as it’s pissed me right off that she’s tried to claim that being part of the Sainsbury’s dynasty hasn’t got her to where she is…

I started going off Ella in 2015/2016. She’s the same age as me and before that I had been so impressed with what she’d achieved.

Then she went on holiday to St Lucia (somewhere I’ve always dreamed of going) and stayed in the beautiful Jade Mountain

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I remember googling the hotel and seeing that it was like $1,500 a NIGHT minimum! And I was like “holy fuck, how can three girls my age afford this?!”

Later that year she then posted about getting engaged here:

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This photo was actually the second time she’d posted a photo of that pool, that year… (so 3 Caribbean holidays in one year)

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Just as an aside: the photo where she got engaged was taken like 4 weeks after she’d just got a dog I can’t imagine getting a dog and then leaving it essentially straight away. Explains her attitude to her kids though.

But anyway, it lead me to Google the house. It’s called Hummingbird, and tonight’s googling has brought up that her Mum has actually sold it. They bought it for an easy £5million, and have sold it for £22million.

Some info on the houses Ella grew up owning:


However, this is the article I came across back then (it’s still a top search on Google if you look for Camilla Woodward Mustique House).


And for those who enjoy looking at luxury houses, this is the house they use to own: https://avenueproperty.com/property/hummingbird/

And honestly I felt so lied to… She had presented herself as this girl who started a foodblog and got lucky. But she isn’t. Her original blog included fish, and was on Blogger or something. She was recommended to change it to vegan because at the time, it was becoming the “in-vogue” thing.

The following is all from interviews I then read by Ella herself at around that time:

She first got picked up by Huffington Post because her friend wrote the bloody article. The whole thing about basing it around her illness and how it “cured her” was essentially a different way to sell a weight loss diet, but rather than saying that, instead, this diet “cures other things too, it’s just that amazing”.

She created her first phone app, funded by her family wealth, when she had like 20,000 followers, which is not usually enough to justify the expense of something like that.

She was able to employ Annie Clack (do any of you remember her?) and then employed someone else (I can’t remember her name though), before she’d even released her book. How? Family money.

Her original kitchen, in the flat she moved into after uni in central London and was in her name, was put in especially for the lighting, the island and the ascetic so it was perfect for filming. This was because the large kitchen in her Mum’s house where she filmed her first youtube (which was filmed by a friend who happened to also be a videographer, so had professional cameras etc) was too dark…

To repeat: she bought her flat in London, and put a brand new kitchen in it to film videos and take photos for a food blog because her Mum’s kitchen was too dark.

Her first book came about because her Mum’s friend, who happened to be a book publisher recommended that she did it and helped her put together a suggestion about what to put forward to publishers.

But no, obviously she has absolutely not had any help at all from her family or the fact that her Mum is the heiress to the Sainsburys fortune which is something like £100million.

That’s ignoring her wedding, which was also in Mustique. They hired several villas around the island for their 30-odd guests. These villa’s are in the $50,000’s per week to rent. And they hired multiple…

Her wealth and her upbringing are just absolutely unimaginable to everyday people. She isn’t one of us. She doesn’t have money problems. Her Mum has invested in all her business ventures and Ella knows that her Mum will buy her out of trouble.

The fact the public have just accepted her story at face value is just incredibly good PR. I think if Tattle had been a thing back in 2016/2017, she probably would have crumbled a lot more and there would have been a bigger backlash.

edit: my ability to paste the right links in the right place is clearly shit 😂 sorry!
 
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stardust21

VIP Member
The Sainsbury’s family sold their share in the business a long time ago and her mother or her are not directly involved. She has a trust fund and decent inheritance but no actual income or influence from/on the business itself
Her Dad was once famously the only Labour MP with a butler. Her Mum bought her a 1.75million flat upon leaving university. They own multiple properties, including a large country estate and multiple properties in London.

They also got married in Mustique where, again, her family own property (to point out this is a private island and renting a property there is in the $50,000-100,000 range per week).

Futhermore the Sainsbury family do not run Sainsburys anymore, however, they do still own large amounts of shares in the company.

So yeah. She might not be about to walking through Sainsburys HQ and take over, but her message there is to try and make herself look like the girl next door. She isn’t. She’s massively privileged beyond anything we can imagine.
 
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Meg78

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What happened to Livia’s?
Livia moved to a bigger office she’d rented and had a brand new kitchen installed there with high end appliances, marble worktops etc and had a dozen new hires in quick succession aiming for expansion….. right before a pandemic appeared. I don’t know how the kitchen was financed, but with the snowball that followed I suspect it wasn’t in cash. Her brand had multiple new products recently launched in quick succession and was mainly focused on commuter lunch sales at places like Boots, so when the pandemic hit and everyone became a remote worker, overnight sales plummeted. She survived thanks to her father lending money to the business (why her father and not a bank is an interesting question to ponder) Sales hadn’t recovered so she then sold shares in Livia’s via crowdfunding (again its curious she didn’t get a bank loan) this was under the guise of expanding the business, without ever letting on what kind of trouble they were in, and avoiding reporting any financials or business updates to shareholders for the entirety of her time on the crowdfund platform… within 12 months the company had become insolvent and the investments made by thousands of her devoted Instagram following were gone in an instant. Records showed that the company was heavily in debt, and that any proceeds from the sale would prioritise her father as beneficiary because of his previous loan. Shareholders have never received a single penny back. She hasn’t ever apologised for leading followers along and taking money under false pretences, her departure was very much a victim mentality, lots of sadness for herself and convenient amnesia for everyone else, she claims that she made no profit from the sale but the recently purchased multimillion pound home with a full back to brick renovation/extension and a garden in London was secure and safe throughout, and she’s spent the past year as a stay at home mum without an income so I wouldn’t say she was left destitute and struggling afterwards.

To watch the whole thing unfold was a fantastic lesson in how to balance growth with security, and to make sure you build on solid foundations. Over leveraging lead to a collapse, she risked it all on expansion being her saviour out of the mess and it failed.

Matthew closed down as much of DE as he could do to get a lower valuation to then purchase the remaining parts of the company from the bank in order to own it outright, now he’s expanding quickly to plump up the value and (I suspect) to either gain higher dividends for both of them to put towards a pile in the midlands or to float the company publicly (or both!). The trouble is an expansion this quick without a solid foundation is a veeeeeery risky gamble, yes they don’t have the loans that Livia did but they’re still leveraged with a high staff turnover, there will be hundreds of thousands of pounds outstanding, total apathy from the workforce in maintaining a balance and all it takes is one supplier or one retailer to fold and suddenly he’ll find himself forever chasing his tail to catch up.
 
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Yel

Chatty Member
Moderator
I think she's just cosplaying talking about debt and struggle to be ✨relatable✨.

I'm sure their inherited and personal wealth is very protected.
 
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Swipeupyouguys

VIP Member
Noone I'd rather...sit on separate sofas, looking at our laptops, and not talk with?

Such couple goals.
Does he praise her publicly ever? She is always blowing smoke up his ass for tapping away on a laptop or thumbing through a business book but... she is the one who got the huge following off her blog etc. He just appears to take all the credit even though their cafes failed, their office workers are unhappy and the new plants range is apparently rather unpleasant but she's all "so proud of this one - bestest c.e.o. in the universe!"
 
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User41137788

Active member
Have you seen the latest Glassdoor review one of their employees has left?

Very toxic workplace
16 Dec 2022 — Anonymous Employee

Pros
There used to be many nice people to work with, but most of them already left. Free snacks

Cons
The company should change their mission and values. The owners care only about targets and sales at the lowest possible cost. People mean nothing in this company, which can be seen in the very high turnover of people. Very bad organizational culture.

Advice to Management
It would be great if you start treating your employees better, and start to listen to them as they can provide valuable feedback and help to change the company's toxic culture.
 
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Walkthehemline

Well-known member
God her life sounds mundane
She is such a basic St Andrews girl. I think originally she just wanted to make her modelling career happen and have some decent pocket money coming in by doing trendy North London supper clubs, having a tote bag line for the wellness girlies, the odd cookbook and maybe some yoga classes on the side. Enter CEO Matthew and it's suddenly an all-consuming family business where she's constantly out of her depth, very insecure about her abilities and trying to hide her stress with affirmations.
 
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User41137788

Active member
The wealth is one thing. Matt then saying that he didn’t think people should get pay rises to help with the levels of inflation is appalling. He literally sat in a meeting with his team (of very normal people) and said this.

I wish I had called it out at the time but no-one else said anything
 
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cee-bee

VIP Member
Their products are just not in demand lol. I remember the thread member here who was an ex employee said they had to pull their sauces from supermarket shelves because they were not selling. Matt doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing
hi new to this thread👋

I remember a daily mail commentor about a year ago who claimed Matt was their ex and he’d never worked and always lived off his parents.

at a glance, sounds like she started to make a success of her blog, he came along and saw it as a cash cow and got involved and has claimed to be doing something self sacrificial for her, when in reality he’s latched onto a good thing and now can play at being CEO

what’s his deal?
 
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gollygally

Well-known member
Her Dad was once famously the only Labour MP with a butler. Her Mum bought her a 1.75million flat upon leaving university. They own multiple properties, including a large country estate and multiple properties in London.

They also got married in Mustique where, again, her family own property (to point out this is a private island and renting a property there is in the $50,000-100,000 range per week.

Futhermore the Sainsbury family do not run Sainsburys anymore, however, they do still own large amounts of shares in the company.

So yeah. Her message there is to try and make herself look like the girl next door. She isn’t. She’s massively privileged beyond anything we can imagine.
Yes all of this, from her message all you get is “I am a middle class girl whose ancestors started something big but we haven’t got much to do with that”.
My arse
 
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Clover123

VIP Member
I'm suuuuch a boss babe my schedule so important so wow much work...should I now post my back to back outlook agenda as well, who is more busy.
View attachment 1737433

Matt Business genius to develop 100 products in extreme inflation and the world entering full-blown recession. No magic branding and marketing will help you. People will save money for basics.



They are extremely delusional to think people will buy their product just because it is De. No one care.

No one cares.
Again- this is a 9-5 job. What most people work. Most of it sounds like quite relaxed meetings. This is hardly back breaking stuff Ella! If this is a busy day I guarantee most of her days are really quite chill. She doesn't realise how out of touch she is!
 
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Jas119

Active member
The Sainsbury’s family sold their share in the business a long time ago and her mother or her are not directly involved. She has a trust fund and decent inheritance but no actual income or influence from/on the business itself
She may not have anything to do with it now but it doesn’t mean her family don’t have a huge amount of wealth from it. She’s from one of the wealthiest families in the country, I think privileged upbringing is an understatement. That makes it sound like she’s purely middle class.
 
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smirkingrevenge

VIP Member
- Ella starts every single day with a mindset reset
- every single day starts off rough
- she feels guilty every single day but then some sunshine and fairy dust solves all issues
- IBS entered the chat but garlic did not get the memo to exit the building so of course flareups and bloating is now a thing!
 
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stardust21

VIP Member
Hi guys. Created a new delicious thread filled with garlicky goodness you. It’s perfect for taking time to yourself from your incredibly busy lives, but your lives won’t be as busy or as hectic as mine, obviously. I’m just so important and aMazing Matt works me to the ground in my own business.

Love Ella x

Title credit: merged two posts together from @Scott19 and @TheSilverFox 😊

Please feel free do an actual (and better 😂) recap 😊
 
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Mmmmmm

VIP Member
After a long weekend in the sun to celebrate creepy Matt's birthday, I hope everyone is now enjoying a very very simple and very casual weekend in Finland celebrating their mother (the Sainsbury's heiress) 60th birthday like I am?!?!?! Just like you, I am a very very normal girl who did drugs in St Andrews, who fly in private jets, wear very very expensive non ethical designer clothes, eat garlicky mush on the daily all while being filled with fake anxiety. I am just like the girl next door not. You too can have this life if you choose to have a positive mindset...It really has nothing to do with the fact that I was born in one of the richest family in the UK and that my arranged marriage (set up by my father) brought even more money and bad decorations taste into our lives...Ella x 🤡🤡🤡
 
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Nitfey

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Apart from the ceo looking like a scared little boy with his "i don't know what I'm doing" face pretending to CEOing, what the heck is that hideous coffee table, looking like a enchanted animal from the beauty and the beast..
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Preferring beauty and the beast
 
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